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07.04.2014, Granada Province reference in the field of biomass - Do we plant?

GRANADA PROVINCE REFERENCE IN THE FIELD OF BIOMASS - Do we plant?

The Provincial Council of Granada, through the Granada provincial Energy Agency, officially launches "Granada is Green" campaign, referring to the potential for development in our province with biomass production and associated thermal uses, in addition to the possibility of other renewable "green" energies.

The Provincial Council of Granada, through the Granada provincial Energy Agency, officially launches "Granada is Green" campaign, referring to the potential for development in our province with biomass production and associated thermal uses, in addition to the possibility of other renewable "green" energies. In addition, the campaign aims to support the sector, by putting in touch different stakeholders associated with the field of biomass for thermal applications, with specialized companies at regional level, thus Granada Energy Agency has created a special section on it’s website, where any municipality, company, and/or citizen can learn about local companies related to Biomass, minimum quality of biomass, and potential use of biomass.
Granada province has now 5,745 installations of biomass for thermal uses, 24.45% of the Andalusian total, thus concentrating a quarter of all the facilities of Andalusia. Considering that Andalusia in Spain leads the field of biomass for thermal applications, as well as considering that climate conditions are optimal in Granada for heating purposes, it’s obvious the high potential for job creation and fixing rural population in our province.

There is therefore still a significant untapped potential, and currently we are working within the European ROKWOOD Project, for the promotion of Short Rotation Plantations as energy crops (in the case of Granada mainly POPLAR, although it is being studied as well the climate adaptation and feasibility of other tress such as Pawlonia and others in our Northern Province facilities, as well as in the installations of the Andalusian IFAPA partner of the project). Although the current top priority is to increase demand for biomass to generate market, we must not leave at any time the work on the evaluation of the best production techniques through Biomass energy crops, given the potential this “new” market might have for our province.

During the workshop the main focus was to improve and increase the demand of Biomass. Nevertheless, SRPs were discussed, presenting the main barriers for farmers at the moment to plant SRPs, and it was discussed as well some possible ways of comercialization of the biomass produced with poplar. Already some companies are distributing chips and poplar slats, and local pelletizing plant in “Tiena” commented it’s availability to study the feasibility of including poplar in it’s biomass demand, as they are thinking in working with a mix of different biomass types to produce Enplus quality pellets.

If you want to know something more about the conference, presentations can be downloaded at the following link: http://apegr.org/index.php/es/la-agencia/213-pjgevrokwood